So I was in the kitchen last night, I turn on the Play:5 using the Android controller. Now when in the living room when I tell my Echo Dot to turn on the lights the Play:5 goes quiet whilst Alexa is listening!
Why does it do that?
Please fix that ducking feature
Userlevel 6
+11
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In the meantime, an option to turn off ducking completely would be nice.
Userlevel 3
Yes, there definitely needs to be a capability to connect / associate specific Echo's / Echo Dot's, etc. with a room and other devices in that room.
I've got the original Echo and 6 Echo Dot's throughout the house. These devices are used to control lights, fans, temperature, and now Sonos.
Here's an example of what I am experiencing in some way, shape, or form practically every time a command is given somewhere in the house.
- Child in front room where the TV is.
- I am in another room where I have Sonos playing an Audible book.
- We turn off Sonos in the TV Room so the child can watch TV, she closes the door so we can still listen to the audio book
- She now says Alexa, turn on Amazon TV
- Sound / volume on audio book (which is currently configured to play in multiple rooms) goes WAY, WAY down (barely audible ... pun intended)
I understand that all of this is an evolution but ... silly me ... I thought that the fact that Sonos was taking forever to release the integration was because they were taking the time to get it right. Right meaning that you could group rooms, select music from your own music library ... and not having the volume on all rooms basically turn off in every room when you issue a command in another room that is possibly on the other side of the house or on another floor.
Don't get me wrong, I do like it. It is a start. I know that it's complicated but damn ... well over a year for volume and start / stop control. Yes I know you can tell it to play some streaming station. Yes I play streaming stations but I actually usually scroll through the list to pick what I want. I generally have no idea what I want to play when it comes to a streaming station.
Yes, an option to turn off the ducking would be nice too.
Amazon / Sonos please fix this.
Thanks!
Userlevel 6
+11
They've been developing this voice control for over a year, plenty of time to sort it out with Amazon. It won't be beta next week and i'm sure it won't be fixed by then.
Who said it won't be beta next week? Just because the Sonos One is released doesn't mean the Sonos skill via Amazon is not still in beta.
And this "been developing this voice control for over a year" BS has to stop. This is something that has never been done before, and it was highly dependent on the Amazon API which was released only 3 weeks ago. Neither you nor I know the number of man hours put into the effort, nor the estimate of hours required, so therefore we have no way of stating if there was "plenty of time to sort it out" or not. Speculative nonsense like that is nothing but shouting at the pigeons, and does about as much good.
Well, I was going to add to this topic some observations I had on ducking. But, jgatie has again ruined another thread with vicious attacks on someone who doesn't completely worship Sonos as he does.
How would you fix it? Would you make it "duck" just the speaker you're controlling, or the speaker that's closest to the device that you're speaking in to. How do you tell which one is closest? Do you define in the app the speaker(s) that are closest to each Echo device?
Not disagreeing with you, I'd like this feature, too, but if I were writing up a requirements doc, I'm not sure I would know how to define the behavior for the coder to implement. Interested in suggestions on how it could be fixed.
Not disagreeing with you, I'd like this feature, too, but if I were writing up a requirements doc, I'm not sure I would know how to define the behavior for the coder to implement. Interested in suggestions on how it could be fixed.
Interesting. This is the first time I've heard of Amazon's intention to define a "room", but that would certainly make it much easier.
I have seen reference to it as a way to make lighting control more intuitive. If you are in the Living room and simply say "Alexa turn on the lights" the living room lights would come on while the same command spoken in the kitchen would turn on the kitchen lights. If this is implemented it should extend to speakers and other device types as well thus enabling the ability to associate a given Echo to a particular Sonos speaker (or set of speakers). This is the missing link to allow Sonos ducking only in the room you are speaking in.
I agree, that some way of associating Sonos speakers with Echos would be great (whether that be by "rooms" or something else). However in the meantime, I would just like an option to turn off the ducking completely because as-is, it is more annoying than useful.
Userlevel 6
+11
I think it would be easier to go old school and use a phone/controller. I think I'm done with voice control for Sonos for a while. Voice is great for turning my lights on and off but i want to browse my/new music before choosing. I guess skip/pause/etc may be useful by voice.
Yeah I'm having the same issue. Listening to music upstairs. Kids are in the playroom on a different floor. Every time they ask alexa to play music -- the music I"m listening to on a different floor goes away for several seconds. Very annoying.
I imagine they thought (as did I) that the Sonos skill would make the line-in connection to Sonos redundant. Honest mistake.
And, I would expect, at some indeterminate amount of time, it might get fixed. I imagine it's a 2 company problem, which generally means coordinating programming resources, difficult to do.
Well, for those of us who live alone, it's not a substantial issue, either. But I think we all agree, it's probably getting attention.
I guess they also imagined that all Sonos owners only have 1 unit too, if not they would have realised that this ducking feature wouldn't work.
No, I'm sure that is a deficiency on the Amazon side, in that you cannot assign an Alexa device to a particular speaker at this time, so therefore, the command to duck goes to all of them. It may be that the Sonos side of the API also needs work. These are things to expect when an implementation is not fully baked. As I have said many times - Welcome to the world of beta!
And yes, I don't expect to be paying £200 for a beta product otherwise it's going straight back.
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2297100
Sorry, six weeks ago, my mistake. And obviously it was developed along with other speaker manufacturers, so the work was concurrent. The point is Sonos' timeline was dependent on Amazon.
By the way, any other speaker companies even close to Sonos in their implementation? No. Denon actually did promise 1st quarter 2017, and they have nothing. So knock it off with the nonsense, and can the profanity. Act like an adult.
And for the last time (read slow now), the "product" you purchased is not a beta, nor is the Sonos app. The beta is the Alexa skill that you VOLUNTARILY agreed to enable, thus joining the beta. Don't want to participate in a beta, don't enable it. Instead, wait for the general release, which will probably still be ahead of Denon's.
Userlevel 6
+11
And for the last time (read slow now), the "product" you purchased is not a beta, nor is the Sonos app. The beta is the Alexa skill that you VOLUNTARILY agreed to enable, thus joining the beta.
I'm perfectly aware of that, when the Sonos One is out then I would think the Skill would be out of beta, otherwise they are selling a beta product.
Now quit with the arrogance 😃 And get your head out of Sonos' arse. Do you work for them 🆒
I'm perfectly aware of that, when the Sonos One is out then I would think the Skill would be out of beta, otherwise they are selling a beta product.
Now quit with the arrogance 😃 And get your head out of Sonos' arse. Do you work for them 🆒
And there it is folks, the accusation that I work for the company. Attacking the poster, the last bastion of defense for a failed argument. It would be annoying if it wasn't so predictable. :8
By the way, no comment on the Amazon API information that you conveniently snipped from your quote?
I kinda doubt the interface between Sonos and Alexa will be out of beta in a week, nor do I see the release of the Sonos One to mean beta has to be over. The Sonos One has to do all the things that Sonos does on it's own, and there is no reason to doubt that. It also has to do all the things that Alexa does on it's own, and that shouldn't be a problem. It then needs to automatically play music sources in whatever zone Sonos One is defined in, which really would be the only real new feature. Controlling other zones, grouping, music sources, and such can still be in beta, as I see it.
I also agree that regardless of how difficult the development may or may not be, a year of development could actually be rather impressive, if you consider the decisions that had to be made to get it done. These are things we will never be informed of, but having been on several software implimentation projects where several groups are involved with different objectives to the project, it's entirely possible that 95% of the 'year of development' was spent on higher ups negotiating.
If that's defending Sonos, so be it. I prefer to try and figure out why things are the way are then just assume that Sonos is just blatantly failing at whatever the issue is, particularly when they obviously have spent much more time on the issue then I have.
I also agree that regardless of how difficult the development may or may not be, a year of development could actually be rather impressive, if you consider the decisions that had to be made to get it done. These are things we will never be informed of, but having been on several software implimentation projects where several groups are involved with different objectives to the project, it's entirely possible that 95% of the 'year of development' was spent on higher ups negotiating.
If that's defending Sonos, so be it. I prefer to try and figure out why things are the way are then just assume that Sonos is just blatantly failing at whatever the issue is, particularly when they obviously have spent much more time on the issue then I have.
My reply was to your use of profanity. That was an attack on your posting, not a question of whether you were a paid shill hired to denounce Sonos.
And you should have kept reading, that link is also describing the new API for basic controls of third party speakers.
See that above, "including Sonos, Bose, Sound United (aka Polk, Denon, Marantz), and Samsung". Now tell me, which one of those manufacturers have actually released these capabilities to the public?
As to the rest, I'm going to back away from you now. You completely misinterpreted my post, even after I clarified it. I would explain how I in no way said that the development started 6 weeks ago, but there is no sense arguing with someone so intent on seeing things in a negative manner. You have a nice day now, ya hear!
And you should have kept reading, that link is also describing the new API for basic controls of third party speakers.
New Alexa developer tools extend multi-room audio to other connected speakers and audio systems
. . .
New Tools Let Device Makers Create Additional Voice-Controlled Music Experiences with Alexa
Amazon also announced two new sets of tools for developers to bring multi-room music control to their speakers.
. . .
Connected Speaker APIs
These new tools enable device makers with connected audio systems to control music playback using Alexa. A customer can then use any Alexa-enabled device – for example an Echo Dot – to play music throughout their home on their connected audio systems. Amazon is excited to be working with leading brands on this offering, including Sonos, Bose, Sound United, and Samsung.
See that above, "including Sonos, Bose, Sound United (aka Polk, Denon, Marantz), and Samsung". Now tell me, which one of those manufacturers have actually released these capabilities to the public?
As to the rest, I'm going to back away from you now. You completely misinterpreted my post, even after I clarified it. I would explain how I in no way said that the development started 6 weeks ago, but there is no sense arguing with someone so intent on seeing things in a negative manner. You have a nice day now, ya hear!
There is nothing here preventing you from posting about the ducking feature, except of course the fact that you would seemingly much rather hurl stones at me. Instead of hypocritically adding to that which you just complained about, if you have a problem with my posts and feel they are against the TOS, feel free to report me to a mod.
And by the way, "vicious"? I scolded a person for childish use of profanity and told him to act like an adult. Hardly "vicious". :8
Now who is hijacking the thread with off-topic nonsense? As I said, if you have a problem, report it to the mods.
Is that a YES?
Is that a YES?
Yes. Once, many years ago. So what? Different boards have different rules. As I said, if you have a problem with me, report it to the mods. If banning me is what you are after, that is your only recourse. Good luck! 😉
I wasn't sure whether it was an auto correct or site filter that changed the thread's title.
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